Georgia Viola Anderson

Georgia Viola Anderson, 91, of Seal Rock and formerly of La Grande, died Jan. 15 at the Teddy Bear Care Home in Waldport. The family gathered Jan. 18 for a private celebration of her life.

Georgia was born Feb. 6, 1917, to Irving Hamilton Jones and Rhoda Elizabeth Stout Jones in Mitchell. She was musically talented and played the piano and organ for church services from the time she was a small child in both Mitchell and Independence.

She attended college first at Monmouth Normal School, then graduated from Linfield in 1937. As the Great Depression made money scarce, she was unable to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor, and instead became a nurse. She graduated from Western Reserve University in Cleveland with a master's degree in nursing in 1940.

Later, while heading the Student Health Services at Eastern Oregon College in La Grande, she became a nurse practitioner. In addition to her career, she loved cooking and gardening.

She married Eric Bjorn Osterholme. Together they had five children: Eric Irving, Linda Rhoann, Bjorn Thomas, Nels Gerard and Lance Frances. The family lived most of the time in Astoria. There she was the administrator for St. Mary's Hospital and taught nursing classes.

She moved to La Grande in 1958 to run the Eastern Oregon Student Health Services and teach classes. She retired from Eastern Oregon College in 1977. That same year she married James L. Smith, and lived in Clatskanie, Sweet Home and, finally, Seal Rock. Through Jim's tutelage, she became a ham radio operator.

After his death, she married Houston Anderson.

Survivors include her sister, Jessie Hunnicutt; sister-in-law, Dorothy Jones; her three remaining children, Eric Osterholme, Bjorn and his wife, Sandra Osterholme and Linda and her husband, Herbert Jolliff; nine grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; numerous nieces and nephews; and cousins. She was preceded in death by her sons, Nels and Lance Osterholme.

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